El Hombre’s ticker has to be hurting just a little. Wouldn’t yours if you had to watch the girl you dumped be crowned Miss America?

The St. Louis Cardinals are again stealing hearts in baseball’s postseason pageant. Pujols would never say he wishes he were still a Cardinal, and he’d probably mean it.

There are still nine years on his Angels contract. That’s plenty of time to show he didn’t make the worst career move since Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin. But the early results are indisputable.

St. Louis is one game away from the World Series. Even if it somehow loses a 3-2 advantage over San Francisco, the Cardinals have proven there’s life after Albert.

“They do have something going,” San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. “There’s no getting around that.”

Should anyone be surprised? Nationals phenom Bryce Harper got more attention than the entire St. Louis team this season. But between the organization, the fans and the city, there is nothing like the Cardinal Way.

St. Louis has been to the playoffs nine times in 13 seasons. It’s won two of the past six World Series. These guys know how to run a franchise, but their pragmatic approach cost them Pujols.

Oh, the 10-year, $210 million deal they offered was out of character. They knew the return on investment would plummet toward the end.

Pujols was special enough to warrant such love. And St. Louis offered everything money can’t buy—privacy, adoration and seemingly endless baseball happiness.

For an acutely non-Hollywood guy like Pujols, it seemed ideal. But being humble does not exclude one from being sensitive. Pujols felt insulted when St. Louis initially offered a five-year deal.

“When you have somebody say, ‘We want you to be a Cardinal for life,’ and only offer a five-year deal, it kind of confused us,” Pujols’ wife, Deidre, told a St. Louis radio station.

In St. Louis, you don’t need agents to negotiate such a thing. Stan Musial has a lifetime contract to be revered like the Pope around town. Pujols was the next pontiff, but he wanted it in ink. In swooped Angels owner Arte Moreno, who massaged Pujols’ bruised ego.

“He called me his partner,” Pujols said. “That means a lot.”

So did the $30 million extra, along with a 10-year personal services contract. By baseball standards,the Angels got what they paid for this year.

After a slow start, Pujols hit 30 home runs and batted .285. The Angels won 89 games but finished third in the American League West.

Pujols’ home run total and batting average both declined for the third consecutive season. El Hombre won’t be reduced to sitting on the bench and asking models for phone numbers. But he’s not getting any younger at 32, and there’s still $228 million left on his deal.

It also bought them a purpose. As Berkman said, they wanted to prove one player does not make a team.

We’re happy to report that one player’s surgery went well. His knee should be 100 percent by spring training, where he’ll undoubtedly reiterate he has no regrets with how things turned out with the Cardinals.